That is what a very bright, educated young women asked me after viewing a documentary on life at the Pine Ridge Reservation in the 1970's? She had never heard of AIM, nor Dick Wilson, nor the Goons. She had heard vaguely of a place called Wounded Knee, but knew nothing of Spotted Elk, the Ghost Dance, or the death of Sitting Bull.
We do not forget that we are Mill Swamp INDIAN Horses. The names of our horses are history lessons in themselves. Not long ago a visitor asked me what we called our beautiful bay mare, Standing Holy, expecting me to say that she had some cute "barn name", perhaps "Standy". I explained that Standing Holy was named for the last daughter of Sitting Bull and that we called her Standing Holy.
Ta Sunka Witco was translated into English as "Crazy Horse." Crazy Horse had a daughter whose death at age five cast a veil over his life that never lifted. Her name was They Are Afraid of Her.
The filly in the picture above is only a few hours old. Her father is my Spanish Mustang, Ta Sunka Witco. She is his first daughter. Her name is They are Afraid of Her. She will not have a cute barn name. We will call her They are Afraid of Her.
And when we do so we will have to explain all about Crazy Horse, the Greasy Grass fight, the flight to the Grandmother's land, death at Fort Robinson, and maybe even a bit about life at Pine Ridge today.
Then there will be at least one more person who knows about this.
3 comments:
This made me laugh.. What you say about Barn names is funny, I don't think Cricket is a barn name, is it? A lot of people don't know if Cricket is a boy or a girl... So they say "He" and I'm ALWAYS saying, "She".
Lovely filly. If she ever makes it to the competition world, I bet they will be afraid of her.
I hope I get to tell someone why we named her that. I also hope I don't mess up the facts.
-Lydia
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